Recruiting new doctors requires a cooperative effort between Litzenberg Memorial County Hospital, Lone Tree Clinic and the community.

According to Hospital Administrator Mike Bowman, it is almost the most important factor in convincing new doctors to join the current excellent hospital and clinic staff.

Bowman recently announced plans for a proposed $7.5 million expansion of Litzenberg Hospital and he realizes community health needs for the hospital’s service area for the future must be met with additional physicians.

Recruiting physicians is difficult at best due to competition, less definable factors such as community appeal to the physician and or his or her family and available doctors.

"Money is not a big factor in recruiting physicians for Central City," Bowman said, "You can’t really ‘buy’ physicians."

Dr. Mahnke of the Lone Tree Clinic agreed with Bowman’s statement concerning money but he also cautioned number availability for family physician recruits are not high. A call to Dr. Robert Bowman, Director of Rural Programs for Family Medicine at the University of Nebraska in Omaha revealed the following: National statistics show 22% of graduating physicians go into rural areas. "Nebraska, since 1970 has graduated about 40% for rural service," Dr. Bowman said. The Rural Training Tracks program graduates about five to eight doctors per year available for Nebraska rural areas. The second program, named the Accelerated Rural Program, contributes five to six doctors per year for rural service in Nebraska towns having less then 5,000 population.

This translates to about 10 to 16 doctors per year being potentially available for towns the size of Central City. The difficulty is most other towns in Nebraska with less than 5,000 population will probably compete for the same doctors.

Dr. Bowman agreed with Central City’s hospital administrator’s assessment, "Most of the problem is spouse approval, background, and if they are comfortable where they are going." Dr. Bowman is frustrated on how to solve the problem of matching physicians with communities who want and need them. "Many times a decision by a physician and their family can hinge on whether or not the town has a Wal-Mart."

Recruiting has been ongoing the past several years and when interested candidates come to Central City, they are taken on a tour of Lone Tree Clinic, the hospital, community and surrounding area to present the benefits of moving into the community. "A potential problem is selling the entire family," Bowman added. "Many times the spouse is also a professional and you must sell the entire family on the idea of moving here." The key, Bowman thinks, is to find the elusive hot button which will convince the doctor and family to become part of the community.

To help potential new doctors and their families make a positive decision for Central City living, a group of central City individuals meet with the family socially and try to answer questions they might have about the community.

Speaking of the community, Bowman thinks the best thing people in Central City can do to help attract new doctors is, "Talk to everyone on the street they meet as a potential recruit. You never know when the stranger you visit with is a doctor looking over the community and is trying to find out if people are really friendly or not."

Potential new doctors can be found from several sources and Lone Tree Clinic plus Litzenberg Hospital have been working through the Residency Program. In this program approximately every two months a doctor rotates into Lone Tree Clinic. Each doctor could be a potential candidate for addition to current staff. "We have added the avenue recently of looking to physician replacement firms to help us," Bowman added.

With the future expansion of the hospital, Bowman believes the community will need two more physicians over the next one to three years, particularly family practitioners.

Dr. Jerome Gacke has been at Lone Tree Clinic for 18 years and Dr. Steven Mahnke for 16 years. "The toll on physicians for our service area is being on constant call," Bowman pointed out. "They are on back-up call most of the time plus spend two days a week in Fullerton. This means they are not available here."

Dr. Mahnke agreed with Bowman’s assessment of the on-call situation. Three day on-call rotation is not unusual and the Lone Tree staff know graduating doctors will probably consider places like Hastings first where a potential doctor would probably be on call every seven days rather than every three days.

According to Bowman, hospitals close in the state due to loss of medical staff. "It’s easy to get comfortable with what you have and not plan for the future. Without additional staff, it is extremely difficult to survive."

Certain areas in the United States are designated as "medically underserved." Central City is located in one of these areas. According to Bowman, the rule of thumb in the medical industry in one doctor for every 2,000 to 2,500 patients. The Lone Tree Clinic and Litzenberg Hospital patient service area is between 8,000 to 10,000 people. The clinic and hospital serve Merrick County and parts of Polk, Hamilton, Nance, and Hall counties. Bowman believes the hospital expansion will be a positive factor for potential new physicians in making a decision to come to Central City. "It tells doctors the community is forward looking for improving area health services."

Bowman’s thoughts of future recruiting efforts reveal a positive attitude. "We are fortunate to have an excellent staff at Lone Tree Clinic. We expect future recruits to meet the superior standards the current staff maintains and the community enjoys."